THE reserves of strength that Cork IT possess proved critical in enabling them to claim a signif­icant success over Erin’s Own in the fourth round of the Cork SHC in Pairc Ui Rinn last night.

The third-level outfit recovered from a dreadful start, which saw them trail by eight points after the opening quarter, to fashion a brilliant triumph. The introduction of substitutes like attacker Aidan Walsh, who did not start due a hamstring strain, and defender John O’Callaghan was of immense benefit.

However, their operators on the sideline deserved credit as well with a series of positional changes at the interval yielding a rich dividend. Eoin Dillon moved to full-back, Patrick O’Connor was switched to centre-back and Michael O’Sullivan came to midfield. That trio put in towering second-half displays that steered the game in favour of CIT.

And yet, this tie was nearly sent to a replay. Erin’s Own trailed 2-17 to 3-10 as the match entered injury-time but they kept pouring forward. Maurice O’Carroll, who had a prosper­ous evening in their attack, gathered a high ball before swivelling and flashing a shot over the bar that trimmed the gap to three. Then, in their final attack, Kieran Murphy lobbed a free goal-ward and his brother Eoin caught the ball before batting a shot that goalkeeper Denis Roche superbly flicked away to seal a quarter-fi­nal meeting with Bride Rovers, whom CIT defeated at that stage in 2009.

“These lads have been through a tough week with matches, but they showed great spirit here to come back after an awful start,” said CIT manager Keith Ricken.

“We’ve a tremendous bunch of guys in the college. We meet once a week and get a great response from them. Even on Monday night, we’d a meeting and fellas drove to it from Waterford and Clare. I want to thank all the clubs as well for their co-operation, they’ve given us great support.”

Erin’s Owns early form suggested that they would grab the honours. They were sharp and hungry all over the pitch, pouncing on any errors. Eoin Murphy got them off to a perfect start when he did wonderfully to bustle through the CIT rearguard and shoot to the net from a tight angle in the third minute. They maintained that early momentum and utilised the strong breeze well. O’Carroll had shown up well in the opening stages and that was reflected when he robbed Conor Hurley of possession in the 12th minute before finishing emphatically for their second goal.

CIT were left reeling but they steadied the ship. Tommy Quaid became a reliable source of scores from frees and then in the 22nd minute he floated in a cross that Colrn Casey gathered before rifling a piledriver past Shay Bowen.

However, that goal was quickly cancelled out when Murphy ham­mered home a penalty awarded when O’Carroll was hauled down. Erin’s Own built on that strike to hold a 3-7 to 1-8 interval advantage.

But the match changed significantly in the second-half with CIT’s positional alterations having the desired effect.

Lorcan McLoughlin, Quaid and Walsh proved extremely accurate in registering points. The critical score for CIT though was their 43rd minute goal from Simon O’Brien. Casey fetched a long-range McLoughlin free before offloading to the Carrigaline man, and he bundled the ball home. That strike cut Erin’s Owns lead to 3-8 to 2-10 and while the teams were tied level at 3-9 to 2-12 with ten minutes remaining, CIT produced the stronger finish.